Page 38 of Marked by the Demigod

"Yeah."

"Wow."

"Yeah." Katya slowly, ever so slowly, shoves the stack of paper at her. "I printed this out at a Kinkos, so my office wouldn't know who he was. Don't take it on the plane."

Aimes feels a rush of gratefulness that seems entirely misplaced. "Thanks."

"Seriously, though, he's not the best of people." Katya warns, voice heavy. "I don't know why he did that, or when you'll see him again. It could be...a while."

Aimes peers at the sheets, they're text dense and a brick. "Well, he was planning on just never telling me."

"And then you'd be alone, living longer than all your friends and family, and never find out why."

"That's rough."

Another moment of silence. "So promotion, yay?"

It's obviously one of Katya's attempts to be a normal person. "Possibly? It was sudden."

* * *

They chat allthe way from Flasks to Katya's office, and it's just one step removed from gossip, but Aimes feels the knot in the middle of her shoulders start to relax as she holds the pile of papers.

Katya pushes open the door to the office, and her too-pretty secretary is there, packing up. "Hey Miri, why are you working so late?" she says, and it's just about the most casual Aimes has seen her yet.

The secretary gives Aimes an appraising look, before smiling and showing off her dimples. "Avoiding the roommates," she says, breezily. "I was reading." Her sharp eyes track the pile of papers. "Oh, you found him?"

Aimes looks at Katya, who glances back.

Miri laughs, and true to form it is among the most stereotypically beautiful laugh she's ever heard. "I recognize Katya's info packets anywhere." She makes the dimples at Katya, and there's a hint of heat behind them. Not anger, but something adjacent to it. "You didn't compile it here." The question is unspoken.

Katya shakes her head, unperturbed by the dimples or the response. "It's very classified."

Her secretary's eyes light up, and she immediately fixes her gaze on Aimes. "Classified?" She says, her voice in a low purr, hitting her somewhere in the middle of her stomach. "Tell me more?"

For a second, it's like her mouth is about to speak without her bidding, then Katya snaps her fingers in front of Aimes's face, and she jerks back. "Miri, that's rude. Aimes, don't answer her."

"What the hell?" It's like someone doused her with cold water after being fast asleep.

Miri is now typing at her computer, her eyebrows innocently raised.

"She tried to charm you, which she's not supposed to do." Katya shoots Miri a dirty look, the sort of expression that Aimes doubts would ever happen without the glass of wine. She frowns at her secretary, who radiates innocence. "She's a succubi, remember?"

Aimes blinks at Miri, who flashes her a quick smile. "Right."

Miri fits her phone in her purse. "I wasn't seriously going to make her give up any info she didn't want to," she says, voice lyrical. "That's the good thing, I can tell if it's something you want to say or no." She leans over her desk. "Is it a Minotaur? Is that why it's classified?"

"Minotaurs aren't actually real,"Katya says, breezy, pushing her way past to her office. "You know that."

"I still think they are!" Miri calls back, then smiles back at Aimes. "Good luck. If he's classified, he must be super weird."

And Aimes still doesn't know what exactly she should be feeling, so she fakes a smile. "Thanks."

* * *

At waytoo early in the morning, Trixie drives her to the airport, since there's really no point in getting an Uber to the Burbank one.

"When are you getting back?" For some reason Trixie whispers, the morning too quiet for real talking.

---